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The Continental Congress: 

SOME OF ITS ACTORS AND THEIR DOINGS, 
WITH THE RESULTS THEREOF. 



AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE 



ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



AT THEER ANNUAL MEETING 



On the 31st Day of December, 1880. 



■^^ 



By William J. Bacox, LL. D. 



^'JUVAT ACCEDERE PONTES, ATQUE HAURIRE. 



UTICA, N. Y. 

Er,Lis n. Roberts & Co., Book and Job Printers, 60 Genesee Street. 

1881. 






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THE CONTINExNTAL CONGRESS. 



On the 20tli day of Jamiaiy, 1775, in the British House of 
Lords, the illustrious Lord Cluitham delivered a very memorable 
speech. He was the fast friend and the outspoken defender of the 
struggling Colonists of America in their protracted controversy 
with the King of Great Britain and his constitutional advisers. 
He was no longer the great Prime Minister, who had dominated 
the counsels of the Government with an almost despotic sway. 
He had descended from power, and had not, as he remarked in his 
speech " the honor of access to His Majesty." Age also was 
creeping upon him with its stealthy tread, and a painful malady 
racked his once stalwart frame with almost unendurable agony. 

But neither age nor iniirmity could impair the vigor of his 
intellect, nor quench the bold, and at times, even the defiant 
spirit with which he uttered his convictions. He vindicated, 
in the fullest and clearest manner, the right of the Colonists to 
refuse to be taxed, in the absence of all re])resentation in the 
National councils, without their consent. " The spirit," said he, 
" which now resists your taxation in America, is the same Avhich 
formerly opposed loans, benevolences and ship money in England; 
the same spirit wliich called all England on its feet, and by its 
bill of rights vindicated the English Constitution ; the same spirit 
which established the great, fundamental, essential maxim of your 
liberties, that no subject of England shall he taxed but by his axon, 
consent^ On this great princij^le, and in this cause, the American 
Colonists, he adds, " ai-c immovably allied ; it is the alliance of God 
and nature, immutable, eternal, fixed as the fii-raament of Heaven." 

The Continental Congress, of whose members, acts, and their 
consequences I propose to speak, was at this time in session in 
Philadelphia, and had barely initiated those plans and purposes, 
which not long afterward, found expression in tiie great charter of 
our rights and liberties, the immortal Declaration of Lidependence. 
Of this body of patriotic and illustrious men. Lord Chatham, in 
this speech from whicli I have (pioted, made this memorable dec- 
laration. "When your Lordsliips look at the papers transmitted 
tons from America; when you consider their decency, firmness 



\ 



and wisdom, you can not but respect their cause, and wish to make 
it your owui. For myself I must declare and avow, that in all my 
reading and observation — and it has been my favorite study, I 
have read Thucydides, and liave studied and admired the master 
States of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, force of 
sagacity and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of 
difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in 
preference to tlie (ieneral Congress assembled at Philadelphia." 

CoNDiTiox OF Things Prick to the Congress. 

Tliis is high eulogy; and in the moutli of an Englishman, justly 
proud of" the name, and familiar as he was Avitli lier grand history, 
and the great men it had given to the world, it is exalted praise. 
And yet, after a pretty diligent and faithful study of the charac- 
ters, the acts and the conclusions of that body of men known to 
us as the Continental Congress, I hardly dare call it an exagger- 
ated estimate. Many circumstances combined to make the assem- 
bling together of these men, and the successful outcome of their 
deliberations quite remarkable. It was, in many respects a pro- 
pitious moment for such a gathering. The ominous outlook of affairs 
in the Old World, the upheavings that were begiiming to shake 
the apparently well settled foundations of ancient abuses; above 
all the almost universal corruption that tainted and infected public 
and governmental life in England, and which generated and fos- 
tered the wrongs under which the American Colonists suffered, 
all conduced to bring about a unity of sentiment, resulting in a 
unity of action that contained within itself tlie promise and the 
potency of success. 

It is difficult for us to conceive, or ratlier it would be difficult, 
had we not had the good fortune to liave revealed to us, in recent 
days, something of the inner life of those times, how universally 
corrujjtion, dislionor and base-born selfishness pervaded the coun- 
sels and the Court of England. Thackeray, in his lectures on the 
reigns of the Four Georges, who successively occupied the throne 
of Great Britain, let in upon us many gleams of light from those 
years that inflicted many undeserved stains upon the English 
name, and finally tore from the third George the brightest jewel 
in his crown. But a still more recent work, tlie Life of Charles 
James Fox, by Trevelyan, who almost rivals Macaiday in the 
jnirity and lU'rvousness of his style, and the incisive power of his 
invective, has given us a more complete and lilL'-like portrait of 



those days when patriotii-^ra was at a fearful discount, and purity 
an unknown equation. "Every man in Parliament," in Walpole's 
significant phrase, " had his price." But not in Parliament alone 
was venality and greed the rule of public life. Nepotism was 
unblushing and universal. A single extract from this admirable 
book will illustrate this point as clearly as many pages of dry 
narrative. 

"At a time when trade was on so small a scale, that a Lancashire mami- 
facturer considered himself well ofE on the income which his grandson now 
gives to his casliier, a Cabinet Minister over and above the ample salary of 
his office, might reckon confidently upon securing for himself, and for all 
who belonged to him and who came after him, a permanent maintenance, 
not deijendeut upon the vicissitudes of party, Avhich would be regarded as 
handsome, and even splendid, in these days of visible and all pervading 
opulence. One nobleman had eight thousand a year in sinecures. Another 
an Auditor of the Exchequer, inside which he never looked, had eight 
thousand pounds in peace and twenty thousand in war, and still another 
bowed and whispered himself into four great employments, from which 
flowed, month by month, fourteen hundred guineas into the lap of his 
Parisian mistress." 

A reversion to an office was reckoned upon as a good investment, 
sure to come to hand in due time, and as our author sharply and 
keenly puts it, " a paymaster of the works, or an auditor of the 
plantations, with plenty of money to buy good liquor, and plenty of 
time to drink it, did not live forever, and a next appointment to 
the civil service, in the last century, might be discounted as freely 
as a next presentation to a living in our own." 

With the remarkable fiict that the occupant of the throne, 
unlike some of his immediate predecessors, was pure and faithful 
in his domestic life, the morals of the Court were fearfully corrupt, 
and, in some respects, (not indeed quite as open and shameless,) 
resembled those of the infamous Charles the Second. The Earl of 
Sandwicli, high in office, and trusted by his sovereign with great 
responsibilities, may serve as a type of many more " who carried 
undisguised and unabashed libertinism to the verge of a tomb," 
which did not close upon him until he had spent nearly half a 
century in office. 

The bearing vv^hich these things which I have faintly outlined, 
have upon the condition of affairs in America, is easily seen. To 
secure and maintain these princely resources, plunder of all sorts 
and in all available places, was of course practiced, Ireland, un- 
happy, misgoverned Ireland had been ravaged and plucked until but 
little was left for avarice to covet, or greed to secure ; and thus it 



was that attention was turned to America, as to " fresh woods and 
pastures new," where an ample field was opened for these plunder- 
ers of a Nation's wealth, to enhance their own ill-gotten gains. 
Trevelyan very distinctly leads us to the conclusion that it was 
England, governed and controlled as she was, by sinecurists, 
pampered menials in ofiice, and unblushing robbers that lost to 
Great Britain an empire in America, and with the following 
passage, I close this page of a history full of instruction in regard 
to the condition of the Mother Country and the American Colonies, 
at that special crisis that called the Continental Congress into 
being, 

" When Britain had been drained dry, and there was nothing more to be 
squeezed from Ireland, Ministers, in an evil hour for themselves, remem- 
bered that there were two millions of Englishmen in America, who had 
struggled through the difficulties and hardships which beset the pioneers of 
civilization, and who, now that their daily bread was assured to them, could 
afford the luxury of maintaining an army of sinecurists. The suggestion 
can not be said to have originated on the other side of the Atlantic. ' It was 
not,' said Junius, ' Virginia that wanted a Governor, but a court favorite that 
wanted a salary.' Virginia, however, and her sister colonies, were not sup- 
posed to know what was best for their own interests, or, at any rate, for the 
interests of their masters; and plent)^ of gentlemen were soon drinking their 
claret and paying their debts out of the savings of the fishermen of New 
Hampshire, and the farmers of New Jersey, and talking, with that perversion 
of sentiment which is the inevitable outgrowth of privilege, about the 
' cruelty ' of a Secretary of State, who hinted that they would do well to 
show themselves occasionally among the people whose substance they de- 
voured. And yet, in most cases, it was fortunate for America that her 
placemen had not enough public spirit to make them ashamed of being ab- 
sentees. Such was the private character of many among her official staff, 
that their room was cheaply purchased by the money which they spent out- 
side the countrj^. The best things in the colonies generally fell to bankrupt 
members of Parliament, who were as poor in political principle as in worldly 
goods; and the smaller posts were regarded as their special inheritance, by 
the riffraff of the election committee room, and the bad bargains of the 
servants' hall. " 

Notliing need be added to enforce the vividness of this descrip- 
tion, except to recall, at this point, one of the counts in that in- 
dictment of the King of Great Britain, penned by Jefferson, in the 
Declaration, and thus forcibly and truly expressed: "He has 
erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of 
officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance." 
Against such exactions, enforced by such a tribe of needy advent- 



urers and remorseless harpies, our fatliers faithfully remonstrated, 
and, at length, most justly rebelled. 

The Origin of the Proposed Congress. 

It would perhaps be a difficult matter to ascertain, as it would 
be unprofitable to inquire in whose brain originated the conception 
of the Contiiaental Congress. Such inquiries usually end where 
the equally unprofitable and unsolved problem has always termina- 
ted, tliat is in entire uncertainty, whether the thunderous appeals 
of Patrick Henry at the south, or the lightning coi'uscations of 
James Otis at the north, did most to fire the national heart, and 
combine and consolidate the national sentiment. 

As a matter of pretty universal acknowledgment, the two Col- 
onies that led in the actual and forcible movement towards resist- 
ance, were Virginia and Massachusetts. When the first blood was 
shed in the conflict of arms on the soil of Lexington, Virginia 
responded to the call for aid and sympathy, by the clarion voice of 
Henry and the cordial co-operation of her leading men, and through- 
out all the subsequent years of struggling hope and despondency, 
they seem never to have been separated either in harmony of senti- 
ment or unity of action. It may, I think, be fairly claimed that 
the first suggestion of a Council of the Colonies for consultation 
in regard to the wrongs they suflTered, and what remedies were 
appropriate to the case, was made in a letter from the patriotic 
merchants of New York, addressed to the General Court in 
Massachusetts, and asking that body to take the lead in a move- 
ment designed to bring the Colonies together for mutual counsel 
and concerted action. As a matter of historical record, it is true 
that the first legislative resolution which suggested and recom- 
mended the assembling of and aatually appointed delegates to a 
General Council or Congress for mutual consultation, and com- 
bined action by the Colonists, passed the House of Representa- 
tives of Massachusetts on the 17th of June, 1774, the very day which 
just one year tliereafter, and ever since has been made memorable 
by the battle of Bunker Hill. Tliis is the first resolution passed 
by any of the Colonial Legislative bodies, recommending such a 
convocation to be held on the 1st day of September, thereafter, at 
the City of Philadelpliia, or such other place as should be deemed 
most suitable, and appointing delegates to represent that Colony 
in the proposed Congress, among whom appeared the subsequently 
greatlv distinsxnished names of John and Samuel Adams, 



The Time and Place of Assembling. 

The other Colonies followed in rapid succession, until on the 
2d day of August, 17*74, by a resolution passed by the House of 
Assembly of South Carolina, eleven Colonies had taken the necessary 
action and appointed delegates to meet, as had been recommended 
by Massachusetts, in Philadelphia. The delegates from these eleven 
Colonies assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in the City of Philadelphia, 
on the 5th day of September, 17V4. The delegates from North 
Carolina appeared on the 14th day of that month, while those from 
Georgia were not appointed until July of the following year, and 
soon thereafter appeai'ed, and from that time the representatives of 
the Thii'teen Colonies continued, by changes and renewals until its 
final dissolution. 

At the first roll call on the 5th of September, 1774, forty- 
three delegates answered to their names. Some of them had 
already become conspicuous for the part they had taken in the 
controversies with the mother country, and the provincial authori- 
ties, and some afterwards obtained immortal renown. This is not 
the place, nor will the necessary limitations of this discourse per- 
mit an enumeration of these men, nor allow me to rehearse their 
varied and acknowledged claims to distinction. It must suffice, 
now, to say that Massachusetts, besides the Adams' already men- 
tioned, was represented also by the not obscure names of Thomas 
Gushing and Robert Treat Paine. From Connecticut came the 
sturdy patriot Roger Sherman. New York presented, among others, 
the illustrious name of John Jay and Gen. William Floyd, a gallant 
soldier as well as an experienced civilian, and whose name and fame 
is cherished as one to which our own County of Oneida is fairly en- 
titled. Delaware appeared in the person of Caezar Rodney, 
South Carolina in those of Henry Middleton and Edward Rut- 
ledge, while Virginia indicated her power and pre-eminence in 
what were then, and ever will be, the distinguished names of 
George Washington, Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, and Ed- 
mund Pendleton. Many men still more eminent afterwards 
appeared as members of the Congress. The first act was the 
election of a President, and the choice fell unanimously upon 
Peyton Randolph. His was a distinguished Virginia name, and 
of it he was a worthy representative. He held the position until 
declining health, followed by his deatli in May, 1775, compelled 
his resignation. But for this, his name, instead of the bold signa- 



9 

ture of John Hancock would have headed the roll of patriotic 
men that in the following year signed the immortal Declaration of 
Independence. This election, and that of a Secretary, with the 
presentation of credentials terminated the meeting of the first day, 
and the second was devoted to the preparation and passage of 
some needful rules of order, and a request that on the following 
day, the 7th of September, when the serious work of Congress 
was to begin, the session be opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. 
Dnche. 

And here, prefacing it with the remark that I heartily dislike 
the whole tribe of iconoclasts, from Niebuhr down, who seem to 
take a grim delight in dissipating our faith in all the innocent and 
cherished traditions of our childhood and manhood as well, from 
the apple of William Tell to the hatchet of George Washington, 
the truth of history and regard for the pious memory of our 
fathers, seems to require me to correct a popular suijerstition 
which has obtained great currency, and secured large credence. 
The tradition tells us that no prayer had ever been heard in Con- 
gress, until after many months of anxious debate, when no conclu- 
sion having been reached. Dr. Franklin suggested that they should 
look for Divine guidance, and proposed that prayer should be 
offered by the reverend man already named. Unfortunately for the 
truth of this story, Dr. Franklin, when the Congress assembled, 
was in England, and did not appear as a delegate until the month 
of May, 1775. And the record, both of the request and of the 
prayer offered on the morning of the 7th of September, 1774, ap- 
pear upon the Journal of the Congress, together with the resolution 
at once offered and passed, that the thanks of Congress be pre- 
sented to Rev. Mr. Duche, "for the excellent prayer which he com- 
230sed and delivered on that occasion." 

It is meet that this record be reproduced, that we may be re- 
minded of the piety and devotion of our fathers. It can be truth- 
fully said of them that they Avere a race of earnest and God-fear- 
ing men, who believed profoundly that there was a Supreme 
"Divinity that shaped our ends," an Almighty Sovereign that 
ruled not only in the armies of Heaven but among the inhabitants 
of the earth, to whom devout thanksgivings were to be rendered 
when success crowned our arms, and befoi-e whom the people were 
to humble themselves when disaster came or impended. The 
Journals of the Congress record not less than ten occasions 
during their deliberations, when days of fasting alternating with 
days of thanksgiving were ordered by the Congress. The last 



10 

-occasion for the latter was when, on the 24th of October, 1781, the 
glorious news came of the surrender of Cornv/allis, when, as the 
Journal tells us, the whole Congress went in procession to the 
Dutch Lutheran Church " to return thanks to Almighty God for 
crowning the allied armies of the United States and France with 
success, by the surrender of the whole British army under 
the command of the Earl Cornwallis." And on the following day 
they issued a proclamation setting apart the 15th day of December, 
thereafter, to be observed by all the people as a day of thanksgiv- 
ing and prayer for this memorable and crowning victory. Our 
revolutionary fathers did not fail to recognize and adore the 
"mighty hand and the outstretched arm," that was ever over and. 
around them. May the day never come in all our future history 
when the sons shall forget their devout gratitude, or fail to imi- 
tate their heroic faith. 

The Initial Steps. 

I do not propose to follow the proceedings of the Congress in its 
daily or even yearly details. The Journal is in itself but a naked 
narrative of the resolutions offered and passed, and a record in 
full of the public documents prepared for and adopted by the Con- 
gress. I can only mention, as especially memorable, among the 
earliest j)roceedings, the two addresses, one to the people and the 
other to the King of Great Britain. The first is Avell known to 
have been the production of the illustrious New Yorker, John Jay. 
There are few brighter or purer names than his connected with our 
Colonial or National Instory. The family of Jay came from France, 
and was of Huguenot origin, and better blood tlian this never per- 
haps has coui-sed througli mortal veins. And that blood still re- 
mains witli us in living representatives, with its honor untarnished 
and its purity unstained. This address was one of remarkable 
power and shadowed fortli some of these grievances, which subse- 
quently were so powerfully presented in the declaration. These 
were among the documents that called forth the admiration of 
Lord Chatham, but their weighty and ominous words fell upon 
ears unwilling to listen, and impatient of disturbance in tlieir 
schemes of outrage and plunder, and so outrage and plunder 
went on to their legitimate end, resistance, war and successful 
revolution. 



11 



The Appointment of Washington. 

The time had now fully arrived when it was necessary that the 
army, which had been liastily gathered, should have a systematic 
organization, and, over and above all, a competent leader, and to 
this the attention of Congress was anxiovisly and even painfully 
directed. Local jealousies and rivalries, had to some extent 
already been developed, and it was needful, above all things, that 
the choice should iall upon one who could command the confidence 
of the country, as well as of the army. Tt so happened that the 
Senior Major General, then in the service, was Artemus Ward, of 
Massachusetts. He had attained some position, and stood fairly, 
as a patriot and a soldier, and if priority of rank was to be deemed 
controlling, he had a well founded claim to consideration. A day 
was assigned by Congress for action on this matter, and on the 
15th of June, lll5, they proceeded to execute the order. The 
record in the journal, is simply this : "The Congress proceeded 
to the choice of a General, by ballot, and George Washington, Esq., 
was unanimously elected.''' Only this, and nothing more is re- 
corded. But much more than this, we may be well assured, pre- 
ceded and accompanied so notable an event. 

It is greatly to be regretted that- we possess no authentic report 
of the debates of this assembly of remarkable and memorable 
men. They would be much better and more profitable reading 
than " Congressional Records," tliat now make their annual ap- 
pearance in voluminous quartos, and occupy, if they do not adorn 
our shelves. But in those days, there were no stenographers, no 
reporters, nor any of the tribe of interviewers that are now perpet- 
ually dogging the footsteps and extracting the secrets of our great 
men. What we know outside of the record, is to be gathered 
from contemporary correspondence, and the private memoranda 
of the men of that day, and well authenticated tradition. From 
some, or all of these sources, I am aware that it is claimed that 
the motion which preceded the action of Congress, was made by a 
delegate from the State of Maryland. By other authorities, it is 
asserted that the motion was made by John Adams, of Massachu- 
setts. But whether or not he took the initiative in this matter, it 
is certain, from descriptions given by men who Avere present, and 
heard the debate, that if he did not move, he promptly seconded 
the motion, and supported it by what was the leading and control- 
ling speech of the occasion. We can imagine the interest with 
which lie was regarded, in rising to address the Congress, and the 



12 

eager curiosity with which the members hung upon his words. It 
might well have been supposed, that as a Massachusetts man, he 
would naturally have been inclined to name their own Senior 
Major General, as the man for the position. He proceeded, in well 
set and carefully considered words, to set forth what he conceived 
to be the qualifications of the man to whom was to be confided so 
great and momentous a trust, and ended by saying, that in his opin- 
ion, all these qualifications were fully met in the person of George 
Washington, of Virginia, whom he cordially supported as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the American armies. What a happy surpi'ise, 
and what a perfect solution of the great problem, this must have 
seemed to many anxious hearts, and we can almost imagine that 
even that grave and solemn assembly burst, involuntarily, into a 
shout of glad acclaim, when the name of Washington was 
pronounced. 

It was, beyond all question, a wise and happy choice. Wash- 
ington was the man for the hour, as clearly raised up, — by that 
Providence which equally heeds the falling sparrow and the over- 
throw of an empire, — for the exigent moment that called for him, 
as Lincoln Avas, for the next most momentous and trying crisis in 
our history. The claim of Washington to be placed high uj) on 
the roll of the great men of the world, has been the subject of 
much discussion, and his precise position may not even yet be 
cleai'ly defined. Some things may well be received as established 
beyond controversy. That he was a prudent, sagacious, and with 
the means he had at command, a skillful General, can not fairly be 
denied, that he was, in counsel, wise, self-contained and conserva- 
tive, and in administration, pure, just and fearless, will assuredly be 
conceded. To talk of him as a soldier, compared with Napoleon, 
is one of those questions that school-boys may debate, but grown 
men will not entertain. When we speak of great men, piirely in 
the light of intellect and achievement, we are obliged to acknowl- 
edge, that in force of towering intellect, mastery of men, and 
extent and splendor of accomplishment, Napoleon was "the fore- 
most man of all this world." But on the other hand, we are 
equally compelled to the admission that with all these claims to 
supremacy, Napoleon had striking weaknesses developed in those 
unguarded hours when selfishness, unrestrained passion and un- 
bridled ambition, unchecked by any moral restraints or influences, 
took full possession and control of his baser nature. Washington 
had no such weaknesses, and if there was the element of passion 
in his composition, he held it under wise and dignified control, and 



18 

was (antagonizing the aphorism of Xapoleon) as much a liero to 
his valet, as he was when standing in the full blaze of the public 
eye. 

As a genei-al summing up of the character of Washington, we 
may well accept the testimony of Daniel Webster, as a competent 
and trustworthy witness. I quote his own well considered words : 

" The character of Washington i^ a fixed star in the firmament oi great 
names, shining without twinkling or obscurity, with clear, steady and benefi- 
cent light. If we think of our independence, we think of him whose efforts 
were so prominent in achieving it. If we think of the Constitution which 
is over us, we think of him who did so much to establish it, and whcse 
administration of its powers is acknowledged to be a model for his successors. 
If we think of glory in the field, of wisdom in the Cabinet, of the purest 
patriotism, of the highest integrity, of religious feeling, without intolerance 
or bigotry, the august figure of Washington presents itself as the living 
personation of each and all of these high qualities." 

If we supplement this testimony with that of Lord Erskine, who 
•deliberately declared tliat the character of Washington was the 
only one in all history that, in its contemplation, " filled him with 
awful reverence," we may safely conclude with Webster, that the 
name and character of Washington are indelibly written "in the 
clear upper sky," and that his, at least, is securely and forever 
among 

" The few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die."' 

The Decla.ration of Independence. 

Washington, upon his appointment immediately vacated his seat 
in the Congress, and proceeded to the performance of his great and. 
responsible trust. But on the 21st of June, 1775, there appeared in 
Congress another delegate from Vii'ginia who has exerted, an in- 
fluence and left an impression upon our National history and. char- 
acter second only perhaps to that of Washington — that man was 
Thomas Jeiferson. lie had already made his mark as a public man 
of great promise in his native State, and was now destined to act 
upon a larger theatre, and. become associated with men and events 
that led directly in the pathway to independence, confederation, 
and ultimately to the crowning and glorious result of Union and 
Nationality, and with all these the name and fame of Jefiorson are 
inseparably connected. 

The time had now arrived when the question of independence of 
and separation from the mother country could no longer be de- 



14 

ferred. The history of the rise, progress and consummation of this 
decisive movement is somewhat familiar, and needs not to be dwelt 
upon minutely. A brief recapitulation however will not be inappro- 
priate in this rapid sketch of the prominent doings of the Conti- 
nental Congress. To Virginia belongs without doubt or controversy, 
the honor of the first introduction of the distinct question of Inde- 
pendence. On the 14th day of May, 1776, she instructed her delegates 
in Congress to propose to that body to make a declaration that the 
United Colonies were free and independent States, and absolved from 
all allegiance to the Crown or Pai'liament of Great Britain. The 
first appearance of the question in Congress was on the 7th day of 
June, 177G, when as the Journal States "certain resolutions con- 
cerning inde})endency being moved and seconded," the considera- 
tion of them w^as deferred to the following day, accompanied by an 
injunction that the members be prompt in their attendance. On 
the 8th the resolutions were taken up, but the further consideration 
was deferred until the following Monday the 10th of June, and al- 
though on that day the consideration of the first resolution was de- 
ferred to the 1st day of July thereafter, yet in order, as the Journal 
expresses it " that no time be lost," a Committee was appointed ta 
prepare a declaration to the effect " That these United Colonies are 
and of right ought to be free and independent States ; that they 
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; and that 
all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain 
is and ought to be totally dissolved." This resolution was the one 
originally presented by liichard Henry Lee, one of the most dis- 
tinguished representatives from Virginia, and is now in existence 
in his own hand-writing. This motion was seconded by "glorious 
John Adams " as he was afterwards styled by Lee, and passed the 
Congress without a dissenting vote on tlie 2d day of July, 1776. 

Thus was broken the last link in the chain of Colonial dependence, 
and the duty of presenting to the World the reasons which " a de- 
cent respect for the opinions of mankind " obliged the Congress to 
offer, in justification of the great and momentous step, was confided 
to a Committee composed of the illustrious names of Thomas Jef- 
ferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Koger Sherman and 
Robert R. Livingston. To Jefferson was appropriately given the 
position of Chairman, and as such tlie duty devolved upon him of 
preparing the declaration. It could not have been assigned to 
better hands. In addition to a considerable Legislative experience, 
he was thoroughly familiar Vv'itli the whole course of our Colonial 
history and the grievances under which our fathers suffered, and he 



15 

held a most facile as well as a powerful pen. In this respect he 
had no equal in the Congress, unless it was John Jay. Jay would 
in all probability have been placed upon the Conamittee instead of 
Livingston, but he had just before left his seat in the Congress to 
serve his own State in the Convention that gave to New York the 
Constitution of 1777, and althongh lie subsequently returned to the 
Congress and was its presiding officer, he left it again to discharge 
in foreign lands great and important service for the Country in the 
diplomacy which closed the war and gave us final peace and 
National recognition. 

The Time and Ixcidents of its Final Passage. 

The decisive resolution which settled the question of independence 
was, as I have stated, passed on the 2d day of July and without a 
dissenting vote. This statement is literally true, and yet it re- 
quires a few words of explanation and comment. The resolution 
in the precise words in which it was finally j^assed, was introduced 
on the 7th of June, but its consideration was by the request of 
certain Colonies who were not fully prepared for action, postponed 
from time to time until the 1st day of July, when the debate was 
fully opened, and as Jefferson stated in 1787, the discussion " lasted 
nine hours and until evening without refreshment and without 
pause." Of what was uttered in this momentous debate we have 
in the Journal of course no record, and but little mention elsewhere 
except that Jefierson in speaking of it says that Adams was the 
" Colossus of the Congress," and Richard Stockton declared him to 
be the " Atlas of Independence." We have however what pur- 
ports to be, on what authority is not stated, an analysis of the 
speech of Richard Henry Lee on introducing the resolution. The 
speech attributed to John Adams in the Memorial Address of 
Webster on the death of Adams and Jefferson, although often de- 
claimed by school-boys as the genuine Adams speech, is the pro- 
duct of Webster's own brain and is merely suggested as one quite 
characteristic of the man. Such a speech might well have been 
littered by one so prompt in action, and so admirably trained in 
debate as he was, and possessing as described by Jefferson himself 
" a power of thought and expression which often moved the mem- 
bers from their seats." 

This debate continued through the 1st day of July and until the 
2d when the final question was taken with no dissent as has been 
stated, except that the State of New York didjiot vote, her dele- 



16 

gates however expressing their entire acquiescence in the result. 
The reasons for the New York delegates declining to vote were 
entirely satisfactory, and consisted in the f:ict that they were wait- 
ing for instructions which they had solicited from their own Pro- 
vincial Congi-ess which was about dissolving, and therefore post- 
poned action until the meeting of the New Congress, which 
assembled on the 8th of July, and on the 9th passed a resolution 
unanimously approving the Declaration of Independence and di- 
recting their delegates to sign the instrument, which they accord- 
ingly proceeded to do on the 15th day of July, 1776. This roll 
was subsequently completed as it novv^ stands, and is indeed a most 
venerable document, but in point of fact it was not signed as it is 
popularly supposed to liave been on the 4th day of July, 1776. 
Some document of the same import was doubtless signed on that 
day by the delegates then present, but tliere was a subsequent 
engrossment, and a new signing of all the names which now appear 
upon the parchment jireserved v;ith such scrupulous care among 
the Archives of the State Department at Washington. 

Strictly speaking then it is an anachronism to call the 4th as we 
do " Independence Day."' That day was the 2d and it was the 
day of which Adams spoke in his memorable letter to his wife 
written at the close of that day, as " the one that would be cele- 
brated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival^'' 
to be solemnized by shows, parades, &c., and concerning which he 
predicted that through all the gloom that surrounded them he saw 
*' the rays of ravishing light and glory " in Avhich their posterity 
would bask and participate. The explanation is simj^ly this, that 
as the Congress sat v.'ith closed doors the transactions of the 2d • 
day of July and the absolute ])assage of the resolution were not 
publicly known, nor could they be until the report had been acted 
upon from the Committee on the Declaration which was made and 
adopted on the 4th, when the whole proceedings with the Declara- 
tion were publicly proclaimed from the steps of the State House.* 

*I desire as a matter of juf tice to state tliat for the main facts connected 
with tlie passage of tlie resolntion on Independence and the signing of the 
Declaration, I am indebted to the i^ainstaking industry of my friend Wm. L. 
Stone of New York, who has made our Revolutionary history the subject of 
the most indefatigable research, and who as tlie result of many years of earnest 
and luiretiuited labor possesses in my opinion in a set of more than 
eighty bound volumes, a more rare and valuable collection of documents, 
histories, autographs, &c., concerning the campaign of Burgoyne, the battle 
and surrender at Saratoga and the coiicomitant incidents, than is contained in 
any public Institution or the library of any American Scholar living or dead. 



It is no part of my purpose to enter upon any eulogy of the 
Declaration, much less to analyze its doctrines or enforce its les- 
sons. Many of its topics were of tem.porary interest, and have 
passed away with the occasion that called tliem forth. One of the 
most able and brilliant of our recent scholars and public men, in 
what I must think was a burst of fancy as well as of rhetoric, once 
spoke of it as containmg little else than "sounding and glittering 
generalities." If this were true of any portions of a document 
enshrined in the hearts and memories of all true Americans, it can 
not be affirmed of two of its cardinal principles, the corner-stones 
upon which are erected the solid structures of American, as well 
as of all other true freedom. They are the absolute equality of 
all men before the law, and in their political and class relations, 
and that the true source of all governmental institutions rests in 
the consent of the governed. These were principles before un- 
known, or at least unapplied, in all the feudal, hereditary and aris- 
tocratic dynasties of the earth. They struck a fatal blow not only to 
what Jefferson called " the right Divine of Kings to govern 
wrong," but to the '■'■Jas Dlvinum'''' by which they assumed to 
govern at all, and elevating the people to the proud distinction of 
sovereigns, put the reins of govei-nraent substantially into their 
hands, to be operated by such means and agencies as they had 
the power and inclination to create. These principles, personal 
and political freedom sustained and upheld by law and the enthroned 
empress " the world's collected will," are those that constitute our 
charter, as they must be the polar star of all the struggling advo- 
cates of true liberty, and when they are denied or disregarded 
freedom and law together take from this world their everlastino- 
flight. 

Our Foreign Coa-djutors. 

Among other most encouraging and gratifying incidents con- 
nected with our struggle for freedom and independence, was the 
sympathy and co-operation received from the friends of liberty 
abroad. I collude not now to the alliance with France, which 
occurred at a much later period of the contest, and was the result 
of long-continued and admirable diplomacy conducted by some of 
our ablest and most sagacious men. From the moment that the 
spirit of resistance to unjust taxation and remorseless greed in 
those sent to rule over us, was developed, the interest in our cause 
was awakened in those strong and brave hearts that in other lands 



18 

had been summoned to action either by simiUxr exactions, or who 
gladly heai-d the trumpet-call of freedom and tlie summons to 
defend the rights of man. It reached them across the roaring 
waves of the Atlantic, and called to our aid some of the choicest 
of Europe's best and noblest sons. The mention of these men in 
connection with the Continental Congress is entirely appropriate, 
because each of them, unless my memory fails, reported himself 
on his arrival to the Congress, and was publicly recognized and 
received with tokens of distinguished consideration, and all were 
very soon appointed to positions of high rank in the American 
army. 

Did time and space permit, I should delight to dwell on the his- 
tory of these men, some of whom had not only a distinguished 
record, but a chivalrous and even romantic story, that fairly 
makes the most sluggish blood tingle at its recital. As it is, I can 
do little more than mention the names of some five or six of the 
most distinguished, leaving to your own memories or the histories 
of that period to supply the details which my limited time will 
not permit. These men were not mere soldiers of fortune, the 
waifs tin-own to the surface of the troubled waters by the love of 
adventure, the Dugald Dalgettys of their day, who fought under 
any flag and in any cause where emolument was to be secured or 
reputation won. They were moved to action in most cases by the 
highest principle, and inspired with the noblest impulses. Some 
of them had seen and felt the wrongs which were the outcome of 
the abuse of imperial and unchecked power, and some had in their 
own persons experienced the sharp edge of the sword that tyrants 
and despots love to wield over prostrate humanity. They bailed 
the dawn of a brighter hope for that humanity in the new woi'ld 
beyond the sea, and recognized the maxim that "Resistance to 
tyrants is obedience to God." 

Poland gave to us the earliest of these coadjutors, in the per- 
sons of Count Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciusko. It would re- 
quire a volume to recount their histories, so closely connected as 
both arc with the history of unhappy Poland, whose story has 
never yet been adequately told, although it is as the poet Camp- 
bell emphasized it, "the bloodiest picture in the book of time." 
It is a story that stamps ineflaceable disgrace upon the three 
European despots who partitioned the territory between them, and 
upon Napoleon, who, when he had the power, in 1808, failed to 
restore the possessions of which Poland had been robbed, and 
the autonomy she had lost. Both these men came to us before 



19 

the army had been formally organized, but their services were 
tendered and accepted, and both performed good and valiant 
deeds — Pulaski yielding his life to our cause, in the attack upon 
Savannah, in 1779, and America gratefully commemorating the 
act in a monument there erected to his memory. 

Kosciusko came of a noble ancestry, and was a man of princely 
character and attainments. Soon after Washington's appointment 
as Commander-in-Chief, Kosciusko became one of his aids, and 
in this capacity, as well as others, performed important service for 
our cause. But a longing desire to aid, if possible, in restoring 
the lost glories of his native land, carried him back to Europe, 
before the close of our own struggle, Avhere, in 1794, he headed 
the brave revolt against the oppressive Rvxssian power, and was, 
literally, " Warsaw's last champion," and, entrusted with supreme 
authority, he, with only ten thousand men, resisted and repelled 
the assault of sixty thousand troops. In the words of another, 
" he displayed the integrity of Washington, with the activity of 
Csesar." But the eftbrt, although almost superhuman, was vain. 
In the last battle, he fought with scarce one-third the force of the 
enemy, covered with wounds, he fell from his horse, exclaiming, 
'"'■ Finis Poloniae!'''' It was, indeed, the end of the dream of 
Polish freedom. Kosciusko, although a prisoner, was treated by 
the Emperor Paul with distinguished consideration. He never 
again wore sword, and, although besought by Napoleon to enter 
his service, he declined, without an absolute promise that his 
country should .again receive a free constitution, and be restored 
to its ancient boundaries. There is no nobler name than his, not 
excepting that of John Sobieski, in all Polish history. He died 
quietly, in France, after a life of storm and struggle and vicissi- 
tudes, and his body is entombed, by a royal mandate, in the mau- 
soleum of the Kings of Poland, at Cracow, the most honored dust 
in that sepulchre of departed earthly greatness. The marble col- 
umn that gleams on the eye of the passing traveler, from the cliffs 
at West Point, is only a cenotaph erected by a grateful country, 
to remind its sons, in all the coming generations, of one who gave 
to our infant liberties, the strength of a brave arm, and the impulse 
of a generous and noble heart. 

Germany sent to us, in 1779, two grand recruits in the persons 
of the Barons DeKalb and Steuben. They were brave and ex- 
perienced soldiers, the former having served more than forty years 
in the armies of France, and the latter in the wars of the great 
Frederick of Prussia, to whom he became an aid-de-camp. Both 



20 

were enthusiasts in the cause of American independence, and re- 
ceived distinguished commands in our arm^^ DeKalb gave his 
life for US at the battle of Camden, and liis memory was honored 
by a monument erected by Congress, upon the ground where he 
fell. Steuben rendered most invaluable service in the organization 
and discipline of our armies ; v/as rewarded by Congress witli a 
grant of 1,600 acres of land in our own county of Oneida, in the 
soil of which he sleeps beneath a monument which our grateful 
fellow-citizens recently erected and publicly dedicated, with ap- 
propriate ceremonies, to his honored name. 

The most distinguislied, as he was the most endeared to all 
Americans, was the Marquis de LaFayette, the most devoted and 
beloved friend of Washington, Of noble descent, of the most 
finished manners, the favorite of the Kingly Court of France, at 
the age of less than twenty he broke away from all the blandish- 
ments of that Court and the honors it had in store for him, and 
gave his means, his whole soul and being to our pati'iotic Colonists 
in the critical days of their struggle, and identified himself wholly 
with our fortunes and our caxise. His history I need not repeat. 
It is familiar to us all as household words, and engraven on the 
heart of every true American, and wherever freedom finds a home 
and undeviating conseciation to principle an honest worshipper, 
there will his name be found high up on the roll of the world's 
good and heroic men. 

Articles of Confederation. 

The next work of importance engaged in by the Congress was 
the preparation of, introduction into, and the passage by Congress, 
with the subsequent ratification by the States, of the Articles of 
Confederation. The subject was first brought to the notice of the 
Congress in the month of August, IVVG; was debated from time 
to time, but the Articles did not finally pass the Congress until 
July, IV'ZS, and were ratified in the following November. They 
were entered into by the thirteen original Colonies proclaimed 
States by the Declaration of Independence. They were evidently 
deemed matters of momentous import, and were expected to be of 
extended duration, for they were entitled " Articles of Confedera- 
tion and perpetual Union," but in the result it turned out that they 
were of much less importance than was conceived, and a short ex- 
periment demonstrated their practical inutility. They did, indeed, 
accomplish one object, and in effect that was about all the end they 
subserved. They brought the States into closer bonds and culti- 



21 

vated the spirit of union, and therefore, perhaps, fitly preceded the 
grand work which the Constitution accomplished. They failed for 
the very reason that rendered the Constitution a necessity as well 
as a success. They had no inherent vigor and contained in them- 
selves no power of accomplishing Avhat tli^ey attempted. Their 
requisitions upon the States had no force beyond recommendations, 
and the States were at liberty to disobey withol^t incurring any 
penalty, and with seemingly little consciousness of self-reproach. 

Ordinance of 1787. 

Before proceeding to what was substantially the closing, as it 
was the crowning act of this Congress, let us spend a moment in 
refreshing our remembrance of an act followed, perhaps by 
larger results and more enduring consequences than have attended 
any single act of legislation before or since the birth of our nation. 
I allude to the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, embraced in the 
scheme enacted by Congress for the government of that vast tract 
of country that went by the name of the Northwestern Territory. 
It comprehended a mighty space now filled up by millions of our 
enterprising pioneers, but then mostly an untrodden as it was an 
unexplored wilderness, so far as the white man had penetrated, 
stretching away from the west and north of the Ohio river onwards 
towards the Pacific, with dimensions and capacities equally un- 
known. It had been acquired, so far as any title could be predi- 
cated of it, by loose claims and an occasional random settlement 
of wandering adventurers from various States, the largest claim- 
ants being the States of Virginia, New York and Massachusetts, 
all of whom ultimately made generous cessions to the confederacy, 
so that it became the common property of the Union. A scheme 
was devised for its settlement and regulation forming the organic 
law which should forever prevail in its government. It was en- 
titled " An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the 
United States northwest of the river Ohio." Into this ordinance 
was inserted this pregnant provision : " There shall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise 
than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted." Tliis section was prepared and offered in 
the Committee by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was adopted 
by them and reported to Congress, and to its everlasting honoi*, 
passed by the unanimous vote of eight States, five of the eight 
being at that time slave-holding States. What a beneficent pro- 
vision, and how far reaching in its results who is competent to tell. 



22 

In the memorable words of Webster, "it impressed upon the verjr 
soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to sustain 
any other than a freeman. It laid the interdict against servitude 
in original compact, not only deeper than any local law, but deeper 
than all local constitutions." No child has been or ever will be 
born, throughout all that vast domain, tliat will not have occasion 
to bless the memory of Nathan Dane, and honor the good and the 
thoughtful men that passed that beneficent ordinance, "to the last 
syllable of recorded time." 

The Constitution. 

And now came the closing, the supreme, the superlative work of 
the Congress, without which all its other labors might well have 
proved vain and fruitless. It did not require unusual wisdom nor 
a protracted experience for sensible men to perceive that a compact 
between independent powers each asserting its own sovereignty 
and perpetually disposed to fly ofl" in its centrifugal orbit, might 
indeed be a confederacy, but was not a Union such as should Aveld 
us together in harmonious relations and constitute us a homogene- 
ous people, an autonomous, a self-sustaining Nation. 

It is not within the scope of my present purpose to give a history 
of the great Convention by which that constitution was formed, 
nor of the various provisions of that instrument, although I must 
be pardoned if in closing I say a few words concerning the character 
and functions of that Government which it organized. The history 
of the Continental Congress substantially ends with the act by 
which in the resolution of February 2J, 1787, it called a meeting of 
that Convention which was to assemble in the following May for 
the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and in the 
words of the resolution " render the Federal Constitution adequate 
to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union." 
This Constitution, the result of the labors of this Convention, was 
reported to the Congress on the 28th day of September, 1787, unan- 
imously approved on the same day, and immediately transmitted 
to the States, and as we all know subsequently ratified by the nine 
States whose assent was required, returned to the Continental Con- 
gress thus ratified, which by a resolution duly adopted, appointed 
the first Wednesday in March, 1789, as the time for the new Govern- 
ment to commence its organized existence. 

And here we may appropriately terminate the history of those 
several assemblages which altogether constitute the Continental 
Congress. The delegates met indeed, from time to time, until the 
2d day of March, 1789, when, only a single member appearing, it 



23 

quietly terminated its existence. Tiie last roll-call was made on. 
the 10th day of October, 1788, when only twenty members an- 
swered to their names, and of those only two are especially nota- 
ble, to wit: Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, whose 
subsequent history has given to each a record of service of im- 
measurable worth to the new government, and to them individually 
an immortal name. Had the Congress survived another month, it 
would have had an existence of fifteen years. There was no beat 
of drums, no weaving of standards, no noisy proclamation of 
heralds, when it went out of life; but what a record has it left of 
patriotic, self-sacrificing service, and what a legacy of priceless 
worth in the Constitution which, through its agency, is bequeathed 
to us and to our posterity forevermore. 

What Government has the Constitution Created? 

And now, let us ask what is this Constitution our fathers have 
given us, and what the character, the functions, or, in other words, 
the real import and the actual value of the Government under 
which we live. Is it a mere compact made by sovereign and inde- 
pendent powers, each one the judge of the extent of the power 
it has conferred, and the manner and mode of its exercise? A 
Government terminable at the will and subject to the capricious 
conti'ol of each of the high contracting powers that assented to 
its form, and gave it leave to be ? Are we an assemblage of con- 
senting sovereigns to a compact to which at any moment w^e may 
put an end in the exercise of that sovereignty; an aggregate of 
assenting atom?, agreeing indeed to unite, but capable of resolving 
ourselves into our original elements, and assuming at our own 
pleasure our primitive form and substance ? 

These are pregnant questions, put by some with cautious hesita- 
tion, by others with bold assurance; and yet the answer to them 
all seems to me most easy and satisfactory. Our Constitution is 
not a compact, it was and is not the creation of independent 
sovereignties, each comj^etent within the very terms and in the 
spirit of the Constitution to plr.ce u])on it their own interpretation, 
and of their own volition without revolution or violence to with- 
draw themselves from its jurisdiction. Neither the Declaration 
of Independence nor the Constitution was the ofispring of State 
Sovereignty. Both instruments on their very face confute this 
doctrine. The Declaration affirmed that, not by the authority of 
the States as corporate bodies politic, but " in the name and by 
the authority of the good people of these colonies," they declared 



24 

themselves free and independent States ; and the Constitution with 
equal explicitness declares that " We the People of these United 
States do ordain and establish this Constitution." 

And it is equally clear, to state the proposition in its briefest 
and most comprehensive terms, that by the Constitution the peo- 
ple of these United States established a. nation supreme over all 
the lesser sovereigntists that constituted the separate States, ordain- 
ing a Constitution that operated upon all the States in their cor- 
porate capacity not only, but directly upon every individual within 
the boundaries of the nation, and endowing that Government with 
legislative, judicial and executive functions, adequate to the en- 
forcement of all its provisions against all resistance, whether that 
resistance should be by the exertion of individual force, or should 
arm itself with power attempted to be wielded by instrumentali- 
ties derived from any corporate source, be it municipal or State, or 
assuming to be sovereign under any name whatever. In these 
respects, if I may use the expression, as I do with the profoundest 
reverence, the General Government is like Deity itself — 

" Sitting serene upon the floods their fury to restrain. 
And as such Sovereign Lord supreme foreveriuore shall reign." 

This is substantially the conclusion to which the- great and 
uanswerable argument of Daniel Webster conducted the people of 
these United States w^hcn he met and overthrew the doughtiest of 
the cham{)ions of States' rights in the great debate of 1830. It is 
the doctrine which inspired the heart and aroused the unconquer- 
able courage of that sturdy patriot, Andrew Jackson, who by the 
favor of a gracious Providence was in the Executive chair when 
nullification raised its head in 1832, and was by his iron will 
crushed out, as by his iron heel he would have stamped out its 
aiders and abettors, had they dared to put in actual practice what 
they proclaimed to be their al)stract faith. 

But although the snake was scotched, it was not killed, for it 
required the final and supreme argument to meet the doctrine of 
secession on its last field, aiul in agony and blood subdue and 
overthrow it forever. War is said to be the' '■'■ ultima ratio 
Hec/Hin f and so it has often proved, and it is the final argument 
of Republics as well, when the issue presented is that of continued 
existence or speedy death. Very dear, indeed, should this our 
freedom and our Union be to us, for with a great price we pur- 
chased that freedom, and with a vast sacrifice we preserved that 
Union. Would you estimate in part that price and sum up that 
sacrifice ? Go, then, and visit the homes and stand by desolated 



25 

hearthstones scattered through the Land, and mark the vacant 
chairs once occupied by those Avho went forth to engage in that 
last great argument, and " whose feet departing ne'er returned." 
Walk through the National Cemeteries and count, if you can, the 
cenotaphs that lift their white lieads above the graves of buried 
heroes, or visit the quiet rnral burial-places and note the green 
mounds, each distinguished by the modest stars and stripes that 
loving hands with each returning spring has planted there, and 
ask who sleep beneath, and constitute a portion of that countless 

host who 

" On fame's eternal camping-ground, 
Their silent tents have spread 
While honor guards with ceaseless rounil 
The bivouac of the dead." 

And tlien tell us what is the meaning of Union and Nationality, 
and what the extent and boundless comprehensiveness of the com- 
pensations that give to those sacrifices their priceless value, their 
inestimable worth. 

The Portents and the Outlook. 

Shall this Government that our fathers gave us, and this Union 
we have done and suffered so much to maintain, survive and be 
perpetuated, or shall we follow in the track of many Nations — the 
wrecks and debris of whose existence are strewn all along the 
shores of time ? There are prophets of evil, as well as of good. 
They have existed in all ages, and do still. Ravens, very black 
and very hoarse, as black and hoarse as were those that sat upon 
the castle of Macbeth, and croaked the fatal entrance of Duncan, 
under his battlements. And some of them delight to sit upon the 
battlements of our Constitution, and hoarsely croak of present evil 
and coming disaster. Believe no such birds of ill-omen, listen to 
no such Cassandra lamentations of impending woe. Have faith in 
your institutions, and have faith in the men that enjoy as well as 
administer them. 

Much as I admire Macaulay, I do not accept his philosophy, I 
remember that his training, as well as that of most of the foreign 
thinkers that have undertaken to sit in judgment upon us and our 
institutions, has been under monarchical and aristocratic influences, 
and my answer to his prediction that our institutions will fail be- 
cause we have given to the people too much freedom, and that they 
will ultimately turn and destroy us with the very instrument we 
have given them for their and our protection, is the answer that, in a 
memorable debate in the 45th Congress, was given by him whom 
the people have just called to be their chief magistrate for the 



26 

coming four years. Tliat answer is this : Xeither Macaulay, nor 
an}' of the other thinkers to whcm allusion has been made, have 
given proper weight to two potmt influences that enter largely 
into our civilization, and give tone and character to our institutions. 
One of these is our educational forces, that reach through and will 
ultimately permeate all classes in our community, and the other 
is that we have no privileged social or class distinctions that 
hold men down in hopeless, abject subjection, but all have liberty 
by the light of our institutions, to rise to tlie highest position 
within the gift of the Republic. To use his own striking illustra- 
tion, "our society does not resemble the crust of the earth, with 
its impassable barriers of rock. It resembles rather the waters of 
the mighty sea, deep, broad and boundless, and yet so free in all 
its parts, that the drop which mingles with the sand at its bottom, 
is free to rise through all the mass of the superincumbent waters, 
until it flashes in tlie light on the crest of the highest wave." 
This is our answer. Is it not ample, and is it not enough ? 

For myself, standing upon the vergs of three-fourths of a century 
of our National histor}', having partaken in a limited degree of the 
responsibilities attaching to its Legislative, Judicial and Executive 
functions, and gazing back through that long vista upon its varied 
fortunes, I avow myself in all that respects our National glory, 
stability and perpetuity, an Optimist in as large a sense as John 
Milton was in regard to England, when in that grand burst of 
eloquence in his plea for the liberty of unlicensed printing, he ex- 
claimed, " Methinks I see in my niind a noble and puissant Nation 
rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her in- 
vincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle, mewing her mighty 
youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam 
purging and unsealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself 
of heavenly radiance, while the whole brood of timorous and flock- 
ing birds with those that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed 
at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate 
a year of Sects and Schisms." 

Such was the vision that broke upon the mental eye, of one of 
the profoundest thinkers and noblest patriots of England. If the 
historian of the mother-land can not truthfully record its perfect ful- 
fillment there, may it not be the hope and aspiration of the Nation 
that broke away from her control, forgetting all our sad past and 
burying it forever in its grave of blood, and looking cheerfully to 
the luture with its rainbow of promise, to more than surpass the 
dream of the Poet iu the peaceful glories that shall crown the com- 
ing history of free, united and happy America. 



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